As explained in the ClassLoading in AS7 article, JBoss AS7 is based on module classloading. A class within a module B isn't visible to a class within a module A, unless module B adds a dependency on module A. Module dependencies can be explicitly (as explained in that classloading article) or can be "implicit". This article will explain what implicit module dependencies mean and how, when and which modules are added as implicit dependencies.

What's an implicit module dependency?

Consider an application deployment which contains EJBs. EJBs typically need access to classes from the javax.ejb.* package and other Java EE API packages. The jars containing these packages are already shipped in JBoss AS and are available as "modules". The module which contains the javax.ejb.* classes has a specific name and so does the module which contains all the Java EE API classes. For an application to be able to use these classes, it has to add a dependency on the relevant modules. Forcing the application developers to add module dependencies like these (i.e. dependencies which can be "inferred") isn't a productive approach. Hence, whenever an application is being deployed, the deployers within the server, which are processing this deployment "implicitly" add these module dependencies to the deployment so that these classes are visible to the deployment at runtime. This way the application developer doesn't have to worry about adding them explicitly. How and when these implicit dependencies are added is explained in the next section.

How and when is an implicit module dependency added?

When a deployment is being processed by the server, it goes through a chain of "deployment processors". Each of these processors will have a way to check if the deployment meets a certain criteria and if it does, the deployment processor adds a implicit module dependency to that deployment. Let's take an example - Consider (again) an EJB3 deployment which has the following class:

MySuperDuperBean.java

As can be seen, we have a simple @Stateless EJB. When the deployment containing this class is being processed, the EJB deployment processor will see that the deployment contains a class with the @Stateless annotation and thus identifies this as a EJB deployment. This is just one of the several ways, various deployment processors can identify a deployment of some specific type. The EJB deployment processor will then add an implicit dependency on the Java EE API module, so that all the Java EE API classes are visible to the deployment.

Some subsystems will always add a API classes, even if the trigger condition is not met. These are listed separately below.

In the next section, we'll list down the implicit module dependencies that are added to a deployment, by various deployers within JBoss AS.

Which are the implicit module dependencies?

Subsystem responsible for adding the implicit dependency

Dependencies that are always added

Dependencies that are added if a trigger condition is met

Trigger which leads to the implicit module dependency being added

Core Server

javax.api

sun.jdk

org.jboss.logging

org.apache.log4j

org.apache.commons.logging

org.slf4j

org.jboss.logging.jul-to-slf4j-stub

EE Subsystem

javaee.api

EJB3 subsystem

javaee.api

The presence of ejb-jar.xml (in valid locations in the deployment, as specified by spec) or the presence of annotation based EJBs (ex: @Stateless, @Stateful, @MessageDriven etc)

JAX-RS (Resteasy) subsystem

javax.xml.bind.api

org.jboss.resteasy.resteasy-atom-provider

org.jboss.resteasy.resteasy-cdi

org.jboss.resteasy.resteasy-jaxrs

org.jboss.resteasy.resteasy-jaxb-provider

org.jboss.resteasy.resteasy-jackson-provider

org.jboss.resteasy.resteasy-jsapi

org.jboss.resteasy.resteasy-multipart-provider

org.jboss.resteasy.async-http-servlet-30

The presence of JAX-RS annotations in the deployment

JCA sub-system

javax.resource.api

javax.jms.api

javax.validation.api

org.jboss.logging

org.jboss.ironjacamar.api

org.jboss.ironjacamar.impl

org.hibernate.validator

If the deployment is a resource adaptor (RAR) deployment.

JPA (Hibernate) subsystem

javax.persistence.api

javaee.api

org.jboss.as.jpa

org.hibernate

org.javassist

org.eclipse.persistence

org.apache.openjpa

The presence of an @PersistenceUnit or @PersistenceContext annotation, or a <persistence-unit-ref> or <persistence-context-ref> in a deployment descriptor.

. JBoss AS 7 maps persistence provider names to module names, so if you name a specific provider in persistence.xml it'll add a dependency on the appropriate module. If this is undesired, exclude it using a jboss-deployment-structure.xml file.

SAR Subsystem

org.jboss.logging

org.jboss.modules

The deployment is a SAR archive

Security Subsystem

org.picketbox

Web Subsystem

javaee.api

com.sun.jsf-impl

org.hibernate.validator

org.jboss.as.web

org.jboss.logging

The deployment is a WAR archive. JSF is only added if used. Multiple version options exist for mojarra.

Information on where to find the full list of mappings from persistence provider name in persistence.xml to JBoss module name would be helpful. Right now I can't find any public listing.

It's in jpa/core/src/main/java/org/jboss/as/jpa/config/Configuration.java in the JBoss AS 7 sources in case anyone's going to go source-diving for it; see eg Configuration.PROVIDER_MODULE_ECLIPSELINK .

You can look up a particular mapping using Configuration.getProviderModuleNameFromProviderClassName(String providerClassName) but can't list all mappings via any public interface.

You can reflectively access the Map<String, String> Configuration.providerClassToModuleName member if you need to list 'em all, but of course that's access to private API and could break at any time.